Fancy a Kung Fu Panda sort of animated action film with Lego bricks and figures? That’s basically what The Lego Ninjago Movie plays out like. A little too familiar and little too fleeting. It has its moments of Lego movie madness, but it feels a little too random and kiddy at all times, including a cat rampaging through Lego city like Godzilla.

There’s a bit of a spin on the usual martial arts, old teacher and evil villain story. The hero here, Lloyd aka Green Ninja (Dave Franco) is the son of the main villain Garmadon (Justin Theroux). Common public in the Ninjago city hate Lloyd because of his father’s dastardly deeds. But Lloyd fights his own father’s forces by teaming up with five other Ninjas and of course their wise but bumbling master Wu (Jackie Chan). The combination of fortune cookie gyaan, martial arts and lego style humour does the movie entertaining in bits and pieces. But the entire storyline of father and son figuring out their positions on either side of the spectrum doesn’t play out all too well. The climax featuring the live-action cat is funny though.

The Lego Ninjago Movie is the third movie based on the lego franchise and it’s the weakest one yet. Part of it goes down to the lack of star voices. This movie does have Jackie Chan and Dave Franco but the likes of Michael Pena, Kumail Nanjiani and Abbi Jacobs aren’t Abi Jacobson aren’t as charismatic as Will Arnett, Liam Neeson, Channing Tatum, Elizabath Banks and Morgan Freeman. The original Lego Movie in 2014 had a lot more talent and star value in the offering. Also the gags in The Lego Ninjago Movie seem a little too frenetic and forced at times. Eash setpiece especially to the quirky Ninja group seems a bit too short and random to add value to the film. Alison Brie’s Unikitty from the original Lego movie or Michael Cera’s Robin from The Lego Batman Movie had greater impact even as supporting characters.

The Lego Ninjago Movie is fun in a limited and childish way. Bruce Wayne’s antics in the Batman version were also slightly corny and juvenile, but the humour was tweaked in a way that it appealed not just to younger audiences but adults too. But here the clan of coloured Ninjas seem like they’re straight out of the Captain Planet cartoons. They’re a little too simplistic and their gags a bit too obvious.

Nonetheless, The Lego Ninjago Movie can be enjoyed by younger audiences to the hilt. Its goofy, nerdy and perfectly zany if you don’t carry the adult baggage. But that’s a very limited approach to film-making. Especially when animated films from Pixar and Disney are only getting smarter with both their emotions and entertainment.